This application claims priority from U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/245,061, filed Sep. 23, 2009, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to the loading of catalyst and other particles into the vertically-oriented tubes of a chemical reactor that is in the form of a shell and tube heat exchanger. In many cases, it is desirable to be able to confine the catalyst to a particular area of the top tubesheet of the reactor, especially when the head has been removed from the reactor and there is nothing to prevent the catalyst from being swept off the side edges of the top tubesheet during loading. While some arrangements have been used in the past, none of them have been very satisfactory. They are bulky and difficult to handle; they trap catalyst, and so forth.